The Far Side Of The Looking Glass
by KyliaQuilor
Summary: Our choices define us - but so to do the choices others make around us. Before Grant Ward and Kara Palamas desperately hopped universes to escape Hydra, they lived in a world similar, yet different from the one you know. A world where John Garret recruited Skye, Victoria Hand mentored Grant Ward, and Melinda May trained Kara Palamas. Welcome to the Far Side of the Looking Glass.
1. Officially, Unofficially

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Agents of Shield. Insofar as anyone can 'own' anything when it comes to fanfic, I do own the Alternate Universe that Ward and Kara came from in "The Fine Dimensional Line".

This will be a series of related, usually pretty short, oneshots, all set in the universe Ward and Kara came from (I'll just call it the Mirror-verse for the sake of ease, even if it doesn't really work like a Trekesque Mirror Universe) all _before_ they fled to the canon-verse. Events in the mirror-universe, broadly speaking, happened more or less like they did in canon, except where they didn't. The big changes:

-May never killed the kid in Bahrain (which instead ended up in the Fridge, despite the efforts of therapists to help her), so she and Andrew had a kid, and she only stayed in Admin for a few years before returning to specialist work though the Bus was her first long-term assignment in several years. She also ended up taking Kara Lynn Palamas as her trainee at one point, and they stayed close.

-Victoria Hand was the one who recruited Ward out of Juvie, and she didn't, you know, brainwash him and all that shit. They're quite close, and Ward was pretty close with Hartley as well, though not quite as much as with Hand. Ward is thus, better adjusted than in canon, and actually has _friends_ , Kara among them.

-Garrett ended up recruiting and brainwashing Skye the way he did Ward in canon, and as in canon, she ends up deliberately getting S.H.I.E.L.D. to come recruit her, but specifically because Garrett set her up to collide with Coulson. She was the Traitor on the bus. She pretends to _not_ be a trained killer so as to trick Ward (who has to 'train' her), but just as Canon Ward accidentally fell for Skye, Mirror-verse Skye accidentally falls for Ward.

These oneshots will usually be rewrites of canon scenes in the context of the mirror-verse, or explicitly referential to the mirror-verse versions of canon scenes. They will not necessarily be in chronological order, and I will reference what episode of canon they take place in and around, give or take, equivalent wise, at the top of the chapter.

Thanks to Stargazerdaisy for beta-reading

The Far Side of the Looking Glass

By Kylia

Officially, Unofficially

 **Set During 1x01 "Pilot"**

"One Chitauri Neural Link, as ordered," Grant said, holding out the small bag to Victoria. "Though things didn't go _quite_ according to plan." Even though at least the helicopter had still been there on time and extraction had worked out as planned, taking him back to the field base.

"You managed to handle it, like you always do. I didn't expect you to turn the drawer itself into a weapon though." Victoria Hand didn't take the alien device. "Hold onto it. Commander Hill wants the link directly from you."

"Wait, what?" Grant blinked, unsure if he'd heard that right. Commander Hill was the overseer of the entire operation that had led up to him retrieving this piece of alien technology from Vanchat before he could sell it, but for his part of the op, he'd reported to Victoria from beginning to end.

"I'd ask what I did wrong, but you'd already be lecturing me on my mistakes if I had. So why am I being kicked up the chain of command?" Grant didn't exactly have an issue with Commander Hill - he respected her skill, but he didn't particularly care for her style, and he preferred _not_ to come to the attention of Fury's second in command. With attention from the higher ups - unless you were a terminal screw up - came promotions, and with promotions came less field assignments - he'd seen that happen with Victoria, who was now stuck running operations from the Hub more than going on them.

His S.O. might be happy to make the transition, but Grant had no interest in cooling his heels while other people took the risks.

"Not a promotion, you don't have to worry about that," Victoria reassured him, as if reading his mind. "Officially, she just wants to give you an evaluation, debrief you on this mission and the last few you've done."

"And unofficially?"

"Unofficially, you're being transferred to a mobile unit," Victoria explained as they walked through the halls of the field base. "And those are all the unofficial details you get."

"Of course." Victoria could bend the rules for him a little, sometimes, but she valued classification too much to tell him more. Besides, if Hill was the one who was overseeing his transfer, for some reason, then he was about to find out the rest of the details. "Just tell me - this assignment. Am I going to hate it?"

"I think it'll be good for you," Victoria replied with a small smirk, deliberately not answering the question. Grant resisted the urge to drop his head into his hands. Whatever this assignment was, he was going to _hate_ it.

 _Yep. This is gonna suck._

* * *

They had only just gotten into the air, and he could already tell he wasn't going to enjoy this mission.

Grant Ward could work with other agents, if he had to. He almost always had someone running back-end, after all, and he always had a handler when he was undercover. And he worked with other specialists when the mission called for it - his operations with Kara, of course, were some of the best for that, since they had such an excellent working partnership.

And the idea of working alongside the Cavalry was one he quite liked.

On the other hand, this team had two completely unprepared-for-the-field scientists who seemed to share one brain, and had far too much excitement for a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent to have when going into potentially dangerous situations. And there was Coulson, who seemed more interested in cracking jokes than anything else.

And who somehow thought Grant Ward would be a good fit for this team.

"Want to explain how this assignment is supposed to be 'good for me'?" Grant asked really wanted to understand Victoria's thought process here, because he wasn't following it at all. "This isn't a team, it's a circus act, and Coulson thinks he's P.T. Barnum." He was walking through the halls on the lower level as he spoke on his phone - no reason to have the team leader hear Grant insult him.

"It'll do you some good to work under Coulson, even if his sense of humor leaves something to be desired." Victoria replied. "Besides, you need to get that stick out of your ass."

Ward blinked. "Wait, _Agent Victoria Hand_ is telling _me,_ " even though she couldn't see it, Grant gestured to himself with his free hand, "that I need to loosen up? You might want to check your other line, because I think the pot is calling."

"Grant, you've been isolating yourself since the mission in Rio De Janeiro, and frankly, I'm getting sick of it. It's not healthy." Victoria's tone was concerned, softer than her stiff 'supervising officer' voice, though there was still an iron undertone. "Isabel agrees with me, and I'm sure Kara would too."

Grant inhaled sharply. "Isabel agrees with you on everything - I swear to god she's the most whipped spouse I've ever met. But bringing up Kara? That's a low blow." He let out a breath. " _This_ was the best way for me to loosen up that you could come up with?"

Victoria had his best interests at heart, he knew. She always did. A lot of was, Victoria Hand and Isabel Hartley were nearly parental figures for him. And Kara was his best friend - he considered Morse, Trip and a few other specialists friends as well, but Kara was the only one who called him Grant, and the only person he'd ever shared any particularly deep conversations with, apart from Victoria.

Rio De Janeiro had been a clusterfuck from beginning to end. He'd been undercorer for too long without contact, nearly left out to dry when his handler defected, and both of his local contacts had died before he'd gotten out of that mess with a broken arm and a bullet in his leg.

 _Fucking hell. She's right._

"Give Coulson a chance," Victoria suggested. "He may tell awful jokes, but he's loyal to the book... usually. He's certainly better than Garrett."

"I'm pretty sure _anyone_ is better than that crazy fucking wannabe cowboy," Grant muttered. "I'm amazed Trip is so well adjusted with that son of a bitch as his S.O." He'd worked an op alongside Trip once, with Garrett overseeing the whole thing. The man was an effective agent, there was no doubting that, but he was also _intense_. He took interrogations to their legal limit and then some - never enough to really let things go too far, but still. And he pushed his team _hard_ , without letting them take any initiative if a better way to achieve the objective came along.

Which was ironic, given how... creative Garrett could be in applying his own orders.

"Garrett's unorthodox, and he's probably the first to agree that he's a son of a bitch, but he's not crazy. He's earned the latitude he gets, so show him some respect," Victoria said. "I have to go - there's reports there might be something brewing in Chechnya."

"Next time I'm at the Hub, we can grab a coffee," Grant said. "Until then." He hung up the phone. Neither of them were really ones for 'goodbye'.

Fine. He'd give this whole... team and welcome wagon a chance. Just so long as Coulson didn't keep trying to crack jokes and didn't try anything insane.

Of course, it would take Coulson approximately two hours to try something _insane._


	2. You Did Say to Loosen Up

**Disclaimer:** Not mine

Thanks to stargazerdaisy for beta-reading

Honestly, the scene I'm rewriting with this little short is kind of the idea that inspired this whole notion.

The Far Side of The Looking Glass

By Kylia

You Did Say To Loosen Up

 **Set During 1x11 "The Magical Place"**

"Vanchat's intel is paying off. We're pursuing every known buyer of Chitauri metals around the globe," Victoria said to the agents assembled in the briefing room. The plane really was too crowded - it wasn't designed to hold this many people, not really.

 _Or I could just be used to the six-man team._ Grant had to admit that was probably part of it too. He'd acclimated to this team surprisingly fast - and now that they were back to doing things the way he was used to, working under his S.O.

Well, it felt weird. And he wasn't entirely sure he liked it. He didn't hate it, but still.

"The largest has a warehouse in Sydney. This is our best chance to take Centipede down once and for all. I want everyone in full tactical."

"And what about Agent Coulson?" He hadn't pulled that stunt he had on Vanchat just to take down Centipede. This was about finding Coulson. Any Centipede base they took down was purely coincidental to that goal, as far as he was concerned.

"If we're lucky, he'll be there in Sydney. Dismissed," she said to the assembled agents, but, to Grant's total lack of surprise, she gestured for him to stay behind. Once the room cleared out, she took a step around the table towards him.

"Agent Ward," she said and Grant winced mentally at her use of his formal title. "First your trainee doesn't show up for her debrief, and now Vanchat almost flies out of the interrogation room. You want to tell me what's going on?"

"You did say I needed to loosen up," Grant pointed out levelly. "Vanchat was in no danger - that hatch in the roof automatically closes if anyone gets close to being flung from the plane. The guy you had on him wasn't getting answers. If you'd let me handle his interrogation from the start, maybe I wouldn't have had to resort to more drastic measures." He didn't raise his voice, almost pointedly so.

"When I approved Coulson's request to bring you onto his team," Victoria hissed, "I wanted you to stop being so withdrawn and antisocial after Rio de Janeiro, not a wildcard who disobeys orders and runs borderline illegal interrogations without permission!"

Victoria shook her head. "Besides, that's not the real issue, is it?"

"No," Grant agreed. "I don't appreciate you throwing Skye off this plane. She's my trainee, not just a consultant. And I especially don't appreciate you going over my head to ask Agent May what she thinks about your idea to throw her off the plane. I'm her S.O. she's _my_ responsibility. I told you she could help, if you let her do things her way, and instead, you just ignore me and send her off to be 'debriefed'." Honestly, he didn't think Victoria had ever rejected his opinion quite so thoroughly as she had this time, by ejecting Skye the way she had.

It wasn't a good feeling.

"Your trainee was trying to hack our files-"

"Because you weren't giving her the access she needed," Grant countered. "Skye is... unorthodox. I'll grant you that, but she gets results. And she _is_ learning the protocols. She is learning how to be an Agent, and what comes with it."

Victoria frowned. "She's former Rising Tide, Grant. Why are you so enthusiastic to leap to her defense, after everything they've done?"

"Because she's a good person, and she has all the raw materials to make a good agent. And because she _wants_ it. I seem to recall some people asking why you were so enthusiastic to turn a convicted arsonist and suspected attempted murderer into an agent." Grant pointed out, speaking quickly.

Victoria inhaled sharply after a moment of silence. "You really think she has that kind of potential?"

"I do. But that's not what's causing the problem here, Victoria." They were speaking quietly, so their conversation didn't carry. It wasn't like some of the others didn't know Agents Hand and Ward were close, but still, they tended to only use first names in private or among friends - or moments of high emotion, like this one.

 _She's annoyed and confused, and I'm just angry._

"Then what is, Grant? Because better results faster or not, no real danger or not, what you did to Vanchat was out of line, and you wouldn't have done it just for the information."

"Like I said, you went over my head to May and completely ignored me when I said Skye could help. My trainee, my responsibility, my expertise." Grant gestured upwards with one hand a little violently. "Fine, you don't like Skye or trust her. After that stunt she pulled at the Hub, I get why, but that shouldn't change the fact that you can trust _me_ and my judgment that she does belong on this plane, helping us find Coulson." Hopefully she was helping find Coulson her own way, but it would have been faster and easier if Victoria had just let her **stay.**

Victoria opened her mouth, then closed it again, inhaling sharply before finally speaking. "You think I don't trust you or your judgment."

"At the end of the day, no," Grant admitted. "But it certainly _feels_ like it. You can grasp why I'm upset with you over it."

Victoria nodded after a silent moment. "I can. You're right. I should have trusted your judgment. So let me do that now - Skye. She's off trying to find Coulson her own way?"

"She is. I don't know how she's doing it or where, but she is. She can get in contact with us when she finds something." His choice of words was deliberate, and Victoria nodded, acknowledging his meaning.

"I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "This whole mess is more complicated than I like." She gestured to the board. "We have agents all over the world looking for Coulson. I've been fielding calls from the entire leadership - Director Fury, Commander Hill, all asking for updates."

"I should have run my interrogation strategy by you - or gone for something less drastic anyway," Grant conceded.

Victoria nodded, still looking at the map. "All this for one Level Eight agent? This isn't how the system is supposed to. No one agent is worth this."

"Coulson is," Grant disagreed. "You are. Isabel is."

Victoria's expression softened, "I'd agree that Isabel is worth it. I'd say you are too -" then she was back to full professional. "But that's exactly why those sorts of personal valuations aren't supposed to play a role in these operations. But apparently with Agent Coulson, the entire agency wants to throw out the book."

"That seems to be Coulson's entire method of doing things these days," Grant pointed out. Victoria was right - the book was being tossed out, inexplicably, for Coulson. And there _were_ reasons why only so many resources were supposed to be devoted to finding a missing agent.

 _So why_ _ **are**_ _the rules being ignored so completely here?_

Grant knew he wasn't going to get any answers right now - certainly not as long as Coulson was captured.

Mission now, questions later, if ever.


	3. Book Recommendations

**Disclaimer:** Not mine, yada yada yada. Don't sue unless you want a piece of what a nominally overworked clerk at a nonprofit makes for working just under 40 hours a week.

Thanks to Stargazerdaisy for beta-reading help.

Field of Dishonor is the 4th book in the Honor Harrington series by David Weber (and a few co-authors for individual books/spinoffs). Short version - Napoleonic Wars in Space. A good read, especially if you like a good, well done female protagonist. Weber's style might not be for everyone though. First book is On Basilisk Station, but it's with the 3rd book that shit really gets good, fwiw.

The Far Side of the Looking Glass

By Kylia

Book Recommendations

 **Set During 1x02**

Pretending that she had no idea how to handle herself in a firefight was harder than Skye had thought. She could lie better than anyone else - even John - but when the bullets had started flying, her instincts had started screaming. It had been all she could do to avoid following them, pretending to be panicked and terrified.

Now that everything had calmed down, and they were back in the air flying towards a containment facility with the tesseract 0-8-4 in hand, things could proceed as they were supposed to. This team needed to trust her, regard her as one of their own.

Getting Coulson to start eating out of her hand had been even easier than John had said, and FitzSimmons were simple to work with - classic nerds. They had no instincts for distrust, and as long as she was nice to them, they'd be nice to her, they'd think her a good person, trust her... they were handled, easily.

May... Skye wasn't sure what to do with May. The older woman didn't seem to trust her yet, but she wasn't actively hostile. Distant, maybe. She'd have to figure out what to do there.

Ward? Ward would either be very simple, or very hard. John had warned her about him.

 _He's one of Vic's pets - real by the rules sort of guy. Really believes in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mission, believes in helping people. Professional. And he doesn't trust easy - he doesn't like me at all._ _Which, I guess makes him a good judge of character, since I'm secretly his enemy, now doesn't it?_ She could hear John's chuckling in her mind as she remembered his words. The biggest problem with her mentor was that he thought he was a comedic genius.

He wasn't. And his anecdotes got old after the third go around.

But Ward was also attracted to her. The truth serum was bullshit, she knew that - S.H.I.E.L.D. didn't have anything like that. But he hadn't been lying when he said he thought she was attractive. She'd seen where his eyes had gone when she'd removed her jacket. It might take awhile, but she could make something happen with that. He was certainly a hell of a lot easier on the eyes than that cretin Miles Lydon.

But she could also play with that idealist in him. The well-intentioned idiot who actually though S.H.I.E.L.D. could or would make the world a better place.

She found Ward sitting in the center of the common area, reading a thick paperback book.

"Hunger Games?" she asked, gesturing to the book.

Ward looked up. "No, finished that last month. Decided against going on with the series, so now I'm onto this." He held up the book so she could see the cover.

"Field of Dishonor," Skye read. "Don't think I've heard of it."

"It's part of a series. Kara insists I read the whole thing, and so far, it's not bad." At his mention of a woman's name, Skye raised an eyebrow. _Kara? Does he already have a girlfriend?_ She could still work with that - they were living on a small plane for potentially months on end - but it would make things harder.

"Friend from the Academy. She insists I need to read more fiction, so she's always recommending books at me. She's the one who put me onto the Hunger Games."

Skye didn't stop the incredulous laugh that burst from her. "You - you have a friend?" Her cover would react like that too. _I can't imagine who would put up with a toolbag like this long enough to be friends with him._

But her cover wouldn't let that stand. "Sorry - that was rude. I seem to keep going off on the wrong foot with you." She held up the bottle and the glasses. "Can I... buy you a drink?" Smiling a little, Ward nodded and gestured to the seat across from him. Skye sat on the table instead and started pouring.

"I didn't mean to imply - I mean... you just seem really focused, intent on the job. I just... have trouble envisioning you loosening up." She really couldn't. _Next time, prep me with better info, John._

Ward smiled again, chuckled just a touch. "We just met a little over a day ago, and every time we've talked, I've been in Specialist mode. Give it a bit of time - I'm not _actually_ a Terminator."

Skye laughed, "Alright. Fair enough. I wanted to say... what I said earlier, about the uprising... I don't know, that it was a good thing, that's not really - that's not what I meant - what I was talking about was the tweets."

Ward closed the book, folding down a page and setting it aside. "Tweets? Are you trying to make things sound better, or worse?"

Skye rolled her eyes. "Peruvians have organized for the first time in decades. Thousands of suffering people, who have never met, uniting over a common idea? It's mind-blowing." Skye made a 'mind blown' gesture quickly with her free hand, before taking a sip of her vodka. She searched his expression as she pulled the glass from her lips, but he wasn't giving anything away.

"And - I don't want to bring it up, because I don't want to see your hate face... but that's what the Rising Tide is about. People from all over the world, working together to try and make things better." _A bunch of naive morons living in basements and vans, thinking that ideas drive the world; that words matter._

"Alone, none of us can do it - one person usually doesn't have 100% of the solution, but a hundred people each with 1%? That'll get it done. Pieces, solving a puzzle." She'd read that off of some novelty magnet or something, once. It sounded like something 'Skye the Idealistic Hacker' would find profound. "That's beautiful."

Ward seemed to ponder her words for a moment, then, "You and I see the world differently, is all. Specialists... we're trained to be the whole solution. Even when we're working with a team, or a partner, or whatever. We're expected to be able to do the job alone, if we have to. But... I can see what you're saying. Someone can do anything if they're part of something greater, and all that."

"Shield saying?" Ward nodded. "Hackers have their proverbs too - but I'll catch on. I'll have to do that a lot..." Skye let out a sigh. "I've never been in a warzone during an actual war before... That was crazy. You see that a lot?"

Ward nodded. "More or less." He emptied his glass and leaned forward to set it on the table - which is when she saw the blood staining his shirt.

"Woah - did you get shot?" She lowered her voice, "Did that happen protecting us?" Not even most specialists could be so casual about an injury for so long, from what John had told her. _Idealistic idiot or not, Ward's good._ She raised her mental estimate of how long it would take to really, truly crack the man by a few weeks.

"Skin deep, I've had worse."

"No wonder you were so pissed."

Ward shook his head. "Don't worry about it."

"I wasn't - I wasn't 'pissed'... though I suppose I did seem like it..." Ward let out a sigh. "My job is to eliminate variables. And today -" He shook his head, looking around. Skye followed his gaze, and cursed herself for being so focused on Ward she didn't pick up on it sooner.

"They seem to be stacking up more and more," Ward vocalized her own thoughts unknowingly.

The Peruvians weren't drinking. They were too alert.

They wanted the 0-8-4... and they planned to take it.

And Skye had to maintain her cover. Which meant she couldn't help stop them.

 _Shit._


	4. Full Disclosure

**Disclaimer:** Still not mine, yada, yada

Thanks to Stargazerdaisy for beta-reading. She does so much to make these stories readable.

There will actually be two 1x05 oneshots for The Far Side Of The Looking Glass - one from Skye's POV (this one) and one from Ward's POV. the Ward POV one will be done after I finish chapter eight of Fine Dimensional Line. It actually turns out to be kind of an important episode in the development of the course of this AU. These Skye POV scenes ended up long enough as it is.

The Far Side Of The Looking Glass

By Kylia

"Full Disclosure"

 **Set during 1x05 "The Girl In the Flower Dress"**

Skye was working furiously. When she found out which idiot was jeopardizing her entire mission, she was going to personally destroy their entire computer setup. _Hydra has some nice viruses that can make any computer overheat and explode._ And if they died when it happened, so much the better.

That Ward had been so supportive of her, believing her when she'd told the truth - for a change - was an encouraging sign though. Nice to have proof she really was getting to him, getting under his guard. Getting his trust, his support.

It felt good.

To be able to be doing so well in her mission, of course. It had nothing to do with the supportive smile from Grant feeling so much genuine than anything John had given her.

 _Because that's not even true!_ She slapped down that nagging little voice in the back of her head before it could even start down that path. John hadn't been the... softest or most expressive of mentors, but he cared about her, and he'd done more for her than anyone else in the world ever had.

He came first. The mission came first.

Grant was just another target.

This hacker was good, but Skye knew she was better. Besides, she had S.H.I.E.L.D.'s computing power to back up her skill. Bouncing the signal from Russia to Malaysia through China, to _Somalia_ of all places, she finally traced it to Texas.

And along the way, she became increasingly sure she knew who the hacker was. _Goddamnit._ She recognized the coding language. Didn't mean it was Miles, not on its own; the Rising Tide shared programs nearly as freely as it shared data.

"Are we close?" Coulson asked, coming into the briefing room.

"Almost."

Fitzsimmons, in their unique half-adorable, half-annoying way tag-teamed an explanation of what she was up to.: "She's identified the remote access Trojan and the infected endpoint," Fitz started

Simmons picked up without missing a beat. "Yeah, and is searching for a TCP to correlate the hypertext with signature information and then…"

"Bob's your uncle."

"Viola!"

 _That is kind of creepy how they do that._

Coulson didn't follow, obviously. "You get any of that?"

"Only the uncle part," Ward admitted.

"Full disclosure, I recognize the programming behind this hack." Skye didn't even look up from the tablet as she said that, still working. "I know who wrote it."

"Then you know who did it?" Coulson asked, but Skye shook her head.

"Not necessarily. It could be the creator, but the Rising Tide shares programs and code almost as much as it shares information. I mean, we all keep our best stuff private - we're competitive like that - but this stuff has been shared. Narrows the list a little..." She finished her trace.

"And there we go. Traced the hack to an internet cafe in Austin Texas." _Fuck._ The last thing she wanted to be was face to face with - or even in the immediate vicinity of - _Miles Lydon_ of all people. A cretin and kind of a creep and...if she hadn't needed to infiltrate the Rising Tide for John, she'd have knifed him in the gut for his bullshit. As it was, she'd had her fun messing with his computer system after their 'breakup.'

"Can you get us a name, or are we going to-"

"Miles Lydon," Skye said, pulling up his credit card transitions with the cafe. _Idiot!_ "Of course he'd be arrogant and stupid enough to use his own credit card at the cafe." That last part was muttered under her breath, but the others picked up on it regardless. She brought up a picture of his most recent Driver's License.

"You know him?" Ward's tone made it clear he thought he knew the answer. _Which is what you get when you say that out loud._ Not that it hurt her cause any, which was why it had slipped out. Still.

Simmons answered before Skye could. "He's famous - he infiltrated the Kremlin."

"That picture of Putin shirtless, on horseback? That was his," Fitz added.

"Yeah, all that, but he's also my ex-boyfriend. And a _Fucking Idiot_ at the best of times," Skye made sure the capital letters were there when she said it. Not only because that's how she felt, but she needed to make sure that the others - Coulson and Ward especially - didn't think she had anything to do with this.

"Is that going to be a problem? Your past relationship with him?" May asked, walking in, tablet in hand. "I've just set a course for Austin," she added, looking at Coulson, who nodded.

"Not even a _little_ bit. One, his hack put an innocent guy's life in danger, and two, we broke up for a reason. A lot of reasons, actually." Again, she kind of muttered that last part.

"Do you think you could convince him to come quietly, given that you know him?" Ward asked, ever the pragmatic specialist.

"Maybe," Skye admitted. "I'd rather not, but it you want me to, I will. Our breakup was... unpleasant. I may have... set a virus loose in his system to wreak all kinds of havoc afterwards." _Destroyed all his Minecraft server data, his save files for his precious video games_ \- and she'd replaced all his songs with the most agonizingly awful and overwrought opera music.

"If we can get him to come in without a hassle, I'd prefer it," Coulson told her. "You and Ward will go bring him in, we'll see what he knows. See if you can't find out where he is on the way to Austin."

"If nothing else, he's probably still living in the same apartment." Skye started digging into all of Miles's records. "He's a creature of habit."

* * *

Grabbing Miles had proven even easier than she'd thought it would be. All it took was knocking on his door, a disarming smile and then letting Ward push the fucker against the wall and cuff him. And now here he was, in the interrogation room on the Bus.

She had to admit, it was hot watching Ward grab Miles so smooth and efficiently, and it felt good to see her disgusting 'ex-boyfriend' in cuffs and in a cell. _Hopefully he ends up in a permanent one before this is over._

It would serve him right for jeopardizing his cover.

"So what happened between you two anyway?" Simmons asked Skye as she watched Ward get started in his interrogation through the camera feed. "Why did you break up?"

"He's a slob and a cretin, an arrogant ass... I'm not sure what I was thinking when I started dating him, in hindsight." _I should have figured out a better way to get what I needed._ But it had been so _simple_ to get Miles to think she was into him, that she liked him. And... at first, all the attention and the fact that he'd liked her so much had been... nice. Flattering.

"Well, you had to like something about him, at first," Simmons pointed out, as if this was some normal girls-bonding thing... which maybe it was. Skye had no real idea. She hadn't done much bonding at St. Agnes.

"Probably," Skye admitted. _Yeah, like his in with the Rising Tide._ Getting Lydon to vouch for her had opened a lot of doors. "Just can't think of what they are now."

"It's information! It has a life of its own!" Lydon spouted when Ward asked him what he did with the information he'd hacked from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Hong Kong servers. Skye was busy digging into Lydon's life even more. There was something here - there had to be a reason he'd targeted that particular data stream... Lydon wouldn't have gone after something that obscure on his own.

 _Was it someone else in the Rising Tide, or some... outside interest?_ There were a lot of people who would love to get their hands on Mr. Chan, to use his powers or study them. Hydra would love them, but Hydra wouldn't be behind this - they had plenty of people who already had access to the Index.

 _They could have used the hack as a cover._ Skye hoped that wasn't the case - she didn't need to stumble over some other Hydra cell's project. It would piss John off when word came down from the higher ups about it. John hated dealing with the higher ups.

"It's a bit strange, seeing you so... callous." Fitz said after a moment. "You really don't like him, do you? I mean, you used to be on the same side..."

 _Damnit._ She didn't want them to think she was some fair-weather friend either. Skye the 'idealistic hacker' was a core part of her cover.

"The Rising Tide... we're like Anonymous, but without the trolling. We don't always agree about everything," Skye clarified. "We all share basic ideals... that I still mostly agree with, even if being on this plane and doing cases with you guys are showing me why some secrets might actually be good. But beyond that - there's a lot of petty bullshit inside the Rising Tide like you'd see anywhere. Is S.H.I.E.L.D.'s science division all one big happy family?"

"Oh god, not even close," Simmons scoffed, sounding a little horrified. "Remind us to tell you about 'Doctor Kody McRay' sometime."

"I'd rather she didn't," Fitz muttered a little sourly. "It was very pleasant forgetting that he ever existed."

Skye laughed, "Well, then I'm definitely going to have to ask you..." Skye trailed off as she found a hidden bank account linked to an alias she'd traced back to Miles.

With nearly a million dollars in it from a series of transactions.

 _Got you._ Skye immediately printed out the transaction info, hurrying out of the lab without answering FitzSimmons's questions.

* * *

"I always thought you cared more about the thrill and the praise people inside the Rising Tide gave you, than the ideals," Skye shouted, bursting into the interrogation room without asking permission or even warning she was coming in. She had a lot of righteous anger to sell.

"But even for _you_ ," Skye snarled, "This is low." She slammed the bank transactions down on the table. Miles didn't look at them.

"So you've really sold out. You're accusing _me_ of not believing in the Rising Tide's ideals when you're working for S.H.I.E.L.D.?" Miles laughed scornfully. "For big brother?! You've got what you're looking for, so-"

Skye cut him off. She didn't need him spilling the beans about her 'reason' for wanting to learn how to hack, her backup explanation for why she was on the Bus. That was suppose to come later... _and he is threatening my entire mission, not just my timetable!_

"No! You do **not** get to turn this around on me, Miles." Skye slammed her hand on the piece of paper again, poking in the chest with her other hand. "You have nearly a million dollars in a secret account, all given to you in the lead up to you hacking that S.H.I.E.L.D. data stream. You _sold_ information and now an innocent man has been kidnapped because of it. I didn't think you could ever sink lower in my eyes, but congratulations, you managed to surprise me." It was amazing how little she had to fake here, when it came to just how much she loathed Miles.

 _Jeez, I didn't think I hated him_ _ **this**_ _much._

"Skye," Ward cut in. "Wanna catch me up?"

Skye took a breath and turned back to Ward. "Sorry. I was digging into this... _jackass,_ " she jerked her thumb back towards Miles without even looking at him, "trying to find out who put him onto that data stream... I was thinking someone else in the Rising Tide, someone with enough brains to actually come up with the idea, had put him up to it, when I found an account belong to an alias I traced to him. 'Luke Milton' made some very large deposits recently. Nearly a million dollars by the end of it." She offered Ward the paper. He took it and started going over it.

"Well?" Ward lowered the paper and looked over at Miles. "You had to know people with good intentions don't pay this kind of money for classified information."

"I don't have to explain myself to you," Miles countered. He turned his gaze back to Skye. "It was a _million dollars_ , Skye. I would have hacked it for free, but I wasn't going to turn down that kind of money. Not when it could-" Miles cut himself off and looked away.

"What-" Skye started, then she turned back to Ward, dropping into the role of trainee. She wasn't supposed to run the show in the interrogation. The Skye who was trying to learn how to be a good little agent could be forgiven for getting emotional on the new information, given the context...

But this was Ward's interrogation, and he should be giving the orders. Or at least that's how Skye the trainee should think. At the very least, she should let him _tell_ her to keep going with Miles. Show him that she really was working on trying to follow all the S.H.I.E.L.D. rules and regulations.

"He's all yours, Skye," Ward said, with a smile - the third one she'd gotten out of him today, after the two during the Battleship game - playing across his face for a moment. And there was a note of... pride, in his voice.

 _Right. The S.O. proud of his trainee._

Skye ignored the slight warm feeling that pride gave her.

"What are you talking about?" Skye 'forced' herself to be more level, calm. "Not when it could do what?"

Miles said nothing for a moment, but Skye stared right at him, into his eyes, and he flinched.

"Not when I thought it could convince you to give me another chance," Miles said quietly, then, "So I could give you what you deserved, so you wouldn't have to live in a van!"

Skye stared at him, dumbfounded, then, without meaning to, burst into laughter.

" _That's_ what this was about? Three years, and you're still hung up on me?" Skye had to take a breath, cover her mouth to try and control her giggles. _Goddamnit, control yourself!_ "You - you," more giggles. "You thought it was money, that broke us up? That having a million dollars would get me to give you a second chance? If I wanted a million dollars, Miles, I could have stolen it myself! Easily!"

"Then why _did_ you break up with me?!" Miles demanded. "Because I've spent the last three years trying to figure it out!"

"We don't have enough time for me to give you an itemized list," Skye spat. "But we could start with how your condescension, the way you acted like the fact that you, a kid from a well-adjusted middle class family dropping out of college and ghosting your parents for the pettiest of fucking reasons made us alike. The way you patronized me, the 'poor little orphan girl' when you 'taught me how to hack'... or how about the fact that everything you taught me about hacking was almost worthless."

That part wasn't entirely true. He had taught her a few good tricks.

"And now, well to add onto the list, there's the fact that apparently you think I'm a hooker or whatever - who will date someone just because they have money!" That part just completely baffled her. What would ever make Miles think money was what would win her heart?

 _Then again, if he's so dense to never get why I broke up with him..._ Technically she'd broken up with him when she did because she'd cemented herself with enough of the other pillars of the Rising Tide to not need him more, but she'd had tons of legit grievances with him.

"So, here's what's going to happen. You're tell me who paid you to hack that data stream, and in return, I _won't_ tell everyone I know in the Rising Tide that you _sold_ information. I'll _will_ make sure everyone blacklists you, because you _deserve_ it."

Miles said nothing for a long moment, and Skye reached for the paper, grabbing it and starting for the door - and finally, he spoke.

"Someone... she said she was a fan of the Rising Tide. Thought that people with gifts or talents deserved better."

"Who was she?" Ward asked.

"Some rich girl a flower dress. She pointed me to Chinese S.H.I.E.L.D. It didn't seem like anything the Rising Tide hadn't already released." He went on, trying to defend himself, "I traced the money, to make sure it wasn't some... evil corporation or whatever. It was from an eco-research lab."

Skye felt a pit in her stomach as Ward asked the obvious question. _No..._

"Ecological research? What kind?"

"Insects. Some... study with centipedes. What could be more innocent than that?"

Ward looked over at her, and Skye shared a carefully schooled look of realization with him, while internally, she seethed.

This had John's terrible sense of humor _all over it._


	5. Trust Rewarded

**Disclaimer:** I don't own it. Moving right along.

Thanks extended, once more, to the one, the only, the magnificent and amazing STARGAZERDAISY! * _Are You Ready For This_ from _Space Jam_ plays* In this corner, we have all my terrible typos, sad sentence structures and cancerous characterizations, and this other corner, we have Stargazerdaisy somehow making my trash readable.

Let's hear it for her! *uproarious applause*

This is the other side to last chapter, with Ward's POV on events.

The Far Side Of The Looking Glass

By Kylia

Trust Rewarded

 **Set during 1x05 "The Girl In the Flower Dress"**

Skye had been right about one thing - this Miles Lydon was a creature of habit, living in the same apartment he had when he'd been dating Skye. _No clue what she saw in that guy._ Grant also couldn't quite get why the guy had used his own credit card at the internet cafe he'd done the hack from.

 _When I'm doing something nominally illegal for a mission, I don't go around waving a sign that says 'Grant Douglas Ward'._

"I know Coulson asked you to come to make this an easier grab, but if you want, you can stay in the van while I take him down," Grant offered to Skye. "You did say you didn't want to, if you had a choice."

"I'm already too close to his location for comfort," Skye replied. "Besides, if I'm going to be here, I want to see you take him down." There was something almost malicious in Skye's tone, in the way she was looking forward to her ex-boyfriend's arrest. It seemed uncharacteristic to everything he'd seen from his trainee in the few weeks they'd known each other.

On the other hand... it was in regards to an ex. And Grant reminded quite clearly how Kara had responded to her boyfriend at SpecOps Academy cheating on her, near the end of second year. Stealing all his clothes and burning them on the main lawn had only been the beginning, and despite everyone knowing it was her, no one had ever been able to prove it.

 _Well, except me, because she roped me into helping her._ No one had actually been hurt, and in such cases, SpecOps academy had the unofficial rule of 'if you can get away with it it...' as long as it didn't go overboard.

 _In hindsight, that might not have been the best policy, when you get right down to it._

"I'll just knock on his door, say his name. He doesn't just open up to any random visitor - this place is under an alias, he's not technically a _complete_ idiot - but he'll think we're on the same side."

That was the other thing Grant was curious about. "Well, I mean, you are - mostly, right?"

Skye nodded. "I still believe in the basic ideals of the Rising Tide, if that's what you mean." Grant gave her a pointed look, inviting her to elaborate. This was a conversation he'd been wanting to have with her, when they got that far - why would a Rising Tide member want to work with S.H.I.E.L.D. at all? Sure, Coulson had promised her an adventure, and she'd proven she could handle herself well, that she could commit, that she _wanted_ to commit...

But S.H.I.E.L.D.'s entire job was to keep all the secrets locked in a box and never let them out unless they had no other choice. Had it been possible, S.H.I.E.L.D. would have kept the Chitauri invasion secret. The Rising Tide, on the other hand, was the exact opposite. They'd have opened Pandora's Box in a heartbeat, not even wondering about the consequences.

Skye sighed, catching onto his intent. "I believe in transparency, freedom of information and ideas, finding out what the big scary alphabet soup of agencies are up to - but I mean... there's a reason people keep secrets. You're right. What is it you said in the interrogation? 'You pseudo-anarchist hacker types love to stir things up, but you're never around for the fallout'?"

Grant nodded. "Sounds about right."

"Well, this is the fallout. If Miles hadn't done that hack, this Chan guy would still be free. He didn't ask to get crazy powers, and have some evil group kidnap him to do... I can't even guess."

"Brainwash him, dissect him, experiment on him - maybe just hire him," Grant suggested. "The criminal version of HR tends to prefer a more direct approach to hiring."

Skye grimaced. "Exactly. Keeping this guy secret, his powers secret... I mean, if S.H.I.E.L.D. wasn't doing that, or holding onto dangerous stuff like that tesseract-gun from Peru, we'd have a superscience and power people arms race, every government wanting them. I don't like all the secrets, and I still think S.H.I.E.L.D. goes way too far, but..."

She sighed. "There's something to it."

"I can respect that the Rising Tide thinks they're making the world a better place," Grant offered the olive branch. Then he looked back down the hall. "Time to take Mr. Lydon down."

* * *

Grant wasn't sure why Coulson had called Skye and him up to his office - Lydon had a restraint bracelet, keeping him from using technology more complicated than a calculator for quite a long time to come, and though they hadn't rescued the self-named 'Scorch', they'd at least shut Centipede down again. _But we didn't get them all._ No girl in a flower dress, and the lab was obviously not a base of operations.

 _And now they know how to stop their soldiers from exploding._ That was FitzSimmons' best guess for why they'd want him.

But it was all sorted out. He'd been looking forward to unwinding with a drink and a book, unless Skye or FitzSimmons drafted him into a movie night or something along those lines. But no sooner had Lydon been taken off the plane than Coulson had called them up to his office.

"Something wrong, sir?"

Coulson turned away from the window and pressed a few buttons on his desk, bringing up the video of the interrogation of Lydon.

"Something's been bothering me since the interrogation, Skye," Coulson said. "Well, it's been bothering me since we brought you on, but I was willing to let it slide."

"What - what are you talking about?" Skye started carefully, playing with a strand of her hair.

"This." Coulson pressed Play, Lydon responding to Skye's initial accusation:

 _"So you've really sold out. You're accusing_ _ **me**_ _of not believing in the Rising Tide's ideals when you're working for S.H.I.E.L.D.?" A scornful laugh. "For big brother?! You've got what you're looking for, so-"_

Coulson paused the video. "You cut him off before he could elaborate, but that got me wondering. When we picked you up in L.A., you implied it was deliberate, that you wanted us to grab you."

"Yeah, because I wanted to know what was behind the curtain," Skye replied, defensively, hurriedly. Grant stiffened, easily picking up on the half-truth there. _No._ Skye wasn't up to something nefarious. She couldn't be. He'd have picked that up.

"You've been keeping a secret since you got on this plane. That's fine - everyone is allowed some privacy as long as it doesn't cause any problems. But now I have to wonder if yours is going to cause a problem. So - what is it you're looking for? Why did you let S.H.I.E.L.D. find you?"

Skye swallowed slowly, then reached into her shirt and took out a small computer chip. "It's not what you think. I-" Skye cleared her throat, and Grant felt his tighten, just a little. "When I planned for S.H.I.E.L.D. to grab me, the idea was to steal what I was looking for from you... somehow."

"But-" She added hurriedly, "when you offered to let me join, when you offered me a place here, on this team, with S.H.I.E.L.D., even, maybe..." She looked over at Grant. "I realized I couldn't do that to you guys. So I - I figured I'd be able to... ask you, once I thought you might say yes." She held the chip out to Coulson, who took it.

"What is this?"

"Everything I have," Skye said softly.

Coulson raised an eyebrow. "On us?"

"On _me._ " Skye choked up a little. "The reason I first taught myself how to crack systems, what brought me to the Rising Tide, originally." Grant watched Coulson plug the chip in and a series of scanned documents and files started appearing on the viewscreen - ending with a redacted S.H.I.E.L.D. document, listed at Level 8. There were only a few words clear, but among them were 'infant, female' and 'St. Agnes Orphanage'.

"Ever since I ran away from St. Agnes, I've been trying to find information on my parents. Where I came from... why they gave me up. I spent years digging, before I finally found a redacted S.H.I.E.L.D. document. There's nothing else."

Grant watched as Skye's eyes started to water, and he could see and hear nothing but genuineness in what she was saying.

"No records, no files, nothing. My lifelong search ends in a single redacted document. You can kick me off this plane... but I'm never going to stop looking."

"You might not like what you find," Coulson pointed out, but Skye shook her head.

"It can't be worse than what I've imagined," Skye replied, a tear starting to trail down her cheek. Ward realized his hand was on Skye's shoulder in what he was trying to offer as a supportive gesture. "That's my big secret," she sniffled slightly. "You can - you can throw me off the plane now, if you want."

Grant wasn't sure if she should accept her story so readily, but... like Coulson said, people were allowed some secrets, some privacy. It wasn't as if he'd told her everything about his past, his brothers. Lots of details hadn't made it into the public record, even after the trial and exposes - and there was no indication Skye had even dug into his life like that in the first place.

"We won't," Grant said firmly, looking over at Coulson. Skye may have come onto the plane with her own motives, but at the time, they'd been on opposite sides. Now she was part of the team, training to be an agent, and she hadn't done anything wrong. Word would get out from Lydon, sooner or later, that Skye had turned on the Rising Tide. Skye had picked a side and it was the team, it was S.H.I.E.L.D.

"No, we won't. And maybe we can help with this." Coulson gestured to the redacted document on the screen, then took a breath. "In the meantime - you're free to go."

Skye took a shallow breath then nodded, licking her lips quickly. Her eyes flicked over to Grant.

"Go. I'll be right behind you," Grant said softly, resting his hand on her shoulder, for a very brief moment. Skye nodded, then stood, walking out of Coulson's office. When the door had closed behind her, Coulson raised an eyebrow.

"What would Hand say to see you being so tender?"

"That you'd done your job and knocked the rough edges off me," Grant replied. He looked at the door. "I believe her." He wasn't sure if he _should_. He knew he wanted to believe her. He'd only known Skye for a few weeks, but he liked having her around. She was... vibrant. Nothing was boring when she was around. And he'd enjoyed having a trainee a lot more than he thought he would.

All of which meant he wondered if he was choosing to believe her. Her story was a little neat and tidy. It answered a few questions - like why did S.H.I.E.L.D. have _nothing_ on her? She was good at erasing herself, true, but still, the erasure couldn't have been total.

But if S.H.I.E.L.D. erased her _first_?

 _There's a lot of secrets in the agency, and even Fury doesn't know all of them._ Or, if he did, he let people think he didn't. It was hard to say with the Director, or so the rumors went.

"So do I." Coulson gestured to the screen. "I'll make some inquiries into this document." Then he nodded to the door. "I'd say Skye could use her S.O.'s reassurance right now."

"I was thinking I'd give her more drills on the punching bag," Grant offered, fighting back a smirk. "I mean, she did lie to us."

Coulson coughed and cleared his throat. "Since when did you pick up Hartley's sense of humor?"

"Hartley?" Grant shook his head, now letting the smirk show on his face. "When it comes to warped sense of humor, the one I channel is Kara."


	6. The Hub of the Action

**Disclaimer:** It is not mine

Thanks extended to stargazerdaisy for beta-reading

The Far Side of the Looking Glass

By Kylia

The Hub of the Action

 **Set During 1x07 "The Hub"**

 _So, this is the Hub._ Skye had to admit, it was impressive, though not as impressive as Simmons seemed to think it was.

John had always planned to bring her here, so she could have unrestricted access - with his help and her skills - to all sorts of files he wanted, and even the file she'd once wanted - even if she honestly didn't care much anymore, about her origins.

 _Whoever it is that abandoned me as a baby, they don't care. With John, I've got a place I belong now._ She was still curious, yes, but it didn't dominate her life like it had before John had found her, had given her a better purpose.

"Phil Coulson."

Skye looked up from her voice at the sound of John's voice. There he was, his specialist Trip by his side. Skye stiffened just a touch at the sight of him - and more importantly, of Trip. Trip wasn't at all in the know.

"I haven't seen you since you nearly died. Looking pretty good for a dead man!" Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Coulson smile a little at John's words and then John clapped his hands to Coulson's shoulders.

"Garrett." Coulson nodded with a chuckle. "Fitzsimmons, Skye, this is Agent John Garrett." Fitz and Simmons reacted with just a touch of awe - which had to be doing wonders for John's ego. He had a reputation. "We use to run ops together in the late 90s and early 2000s. Went through the Academy together too. Garrett, this is Skye, Fitz, and Simmons. You know Agents May and Ward." He introduced them in turn.

"I've heard almost nothing about this little team of yours, but I know you only pick top tier people." John grinned. "This is Trip, my specialist."

Trip smiled charmingly - directing it at Simmons the most, and the biochemist flushed just a touch. "Nice to meet you all."

"So what brings you here to the Hub?" John asked. "Last I heard, you were on that fancy plane, running all over the world doing whatever you wanted."

"Just about, but we were recalled for inclusion in a broader assignment, and to drop off Agent Shaw," Coulson said noncommittally. Skye rolled her eyes just a little. She doubted the intel Agent Shaw had recovered was useful to her real purpose, but she didn't like being left out of the details, and the whole 'clearance levels' bullshit was only more proof about how stupid S.H.I.E.L.D. was.

 _There's keeping secrets for operational security and then there's just being high on your own aesthetic._ Hydra kept secrets just fine without 'clearance levels' and all that pathetic hot air.

"Dumont went and got himself shot like the idiot he sometimes is, so we brought him back here for treatment," John explained.

"Is he doing to be okay?" Ward asked, concern evident in his voice.

"He should be - docs said he might need some serious surgery on the shoulder, but he should be good as new soon enough." John looked Ward over a moment. "Forgot Dumont used to be part of Vic's ground team for a while there. How is she by the way?"

"She's fine, sir," Ward said stiffly. _He really doesn't like John, does he?_ "I'll let her know you were asking about her."

"Oh, hell no. You'll just tell her I called her Vic, and then I'll have pissed her off again." Skye didn't know much about Agent Victoria Hand, beyond what John had told her, but she did know Hand hated being called Vic, which is why he always referred to her as such.

"I'm sure she already knows, Agent Garrett," Ward replied.

"Probably," John chuckled. He turned to her. "You're not a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. Too pretty, for one." Skye made herself look just a touch embarrassed or uncomfortable with the comment, but not extremely so. _John, just get to the point._ "I've heard Coulson took on a hacker consultant. That you? How did you convince them to bring you onboard."

"That's me," Skye said with a smile. "But hopefully the 'not an agent' part won't always be true. And as for the convincing part - I hacked them and left a trail. Deliberately."

"Really?" John grinned. "I like the way you think." He looked at the others. "I like the way she thinks. Takes real balls." Skye resisted the urge to inhale sharply and roll her eyes. She was always annoyed when John put it like that. "And you're training to be an agent too?" He looked at Ward, Coulson, and May. "So which one of you is training this firecracker?"

"That would be me, sir," Ward replied.

"Well, she could do a hell of a lot worse," John allowed, still grinning in a way that only made him look friendly and amiable to people who didn't know him. _Coulson has no idea how much John hates him..._ Even Super-Spy Ward had no clue...

John looked back to her. "Ward may not be as much fun as some agents, but he's damn good. Pay close attention to him." He held out his hand, and Skye shook it, feeling him palm the tiny computer chip into her hand. Skye was able to take it and conceal it without notice - mostly because nobody was really looking for that. _Always easier to hide something when no one knows to look for it._

"Well, I've got to run. Pleasure meeting your team, Phil, and we should catch up while you're here, have a cup of coffee. I'll tell you all about Sicily."

"I know all about Sicily."

"I told that one already?" John sounded confused, but it had to be an affectation, all part of John's 'cowboy crazy agent' act.

"I was there?"

John laughed in surprise. "Really? Damn, I must be getting old. That or I drank a lot more in my 30s that I remember."

"Probably both. See you around,"

Skye was already making plans for how and when she'd be able to access the computers here on base. With the chip John had passed her, she'd be able to make herself a brief window in which she could go for the files he needed, and the files she was still a little bit curious about.

Grant hadn't expected to see Victoria again so soon after joining Coulson's unit, and admittedly, this wasn't really a great chance to catch up, but still, it was nice to actually talk face to face - they'd only really had a chance for a few phone calls and the odd email.

Once May, Sitwell, and Coulson had left, Ward lowered his voice a little, so none of the other agents could hear him.

"Is this really a good idea, bringing Fitz in? He's smart - a genius. But he's not at all equipped for this sort of mission."

Victoria shook her head, speaking just as quietly. "Under other circumstances, I wouldn't propose this. Not with the risk sending an untrained agent like Fitz in would pose to the operation. But we don't _have_ time anymore."

"And how did we end up with 24 hours until go time?" Ward demanded, his words a low hiss. "Someone dropped the ball for S.H.I.E.L.D. to be that slow on the take."

"I'm not sure what went wrong..." Victoria said after a moment, looking past him. "There's been something wrong with our intel operations in that whole theater the last few years, looking back. If I didn't know better, I'd say these separatists had a mole in the agency, but they're far too small time for that. And there's no real proof they know anything."

"They managed to make a device that can detonate nuclear missiles in their silos from miles away," Grant pointed out.

"Grant, any angry, bitter scientist in his basement with too much time on his hands and just a little spare money can create dangerous technology that merits our attention." Grant couldn't argue with that. One of the better kept secrets of the agency was just how often that happened - not really **that** often in the grand scheme...

But mad scientists in their basement making doomsday devices was supposed to be science fiction.

 _Then again, aliens invaded in 2012._

"Point. But still - we shouldn't be this off guard."

"As soon as the crisis is over, figuring out what the hell has gone wrong is my next priority," Victoria nodded. Then she changed tack entirely. "Your trainee - how is that going?"

"Skye?" Grant smiled a little. "She's... not what I expected, from the Rising Tide. Or what I thought my trainee would be like. But - she's..." He couldn't help it as his smile got just a touch bigger. "She's learning quick, and she's got a unique take on things. I think she'll make a good agent someday. Great, even, if she can learn to focus just a bit more."

"Sounds like you're a fan."

Grant laughed just a little, quietly. "I suppose so. Though I don't think she'll ever really read the book, let alone go by it." He hesitated a moment, then, "Speaking of going by the book - you said Coulson went by it, most of the time?" Victoria nodded. "Ever since this team got started, he's been throwing it out every chance he gets. Made some good choices doing it, including Skye. But still. Not a thing like you said he'd be like."

"Really?" Victoria pursed her lips a moment. "I've heard he was different since New York, but... that much?"

"That much. Nearly dying can change someone but this... I knew his reputation before - he was nothing like this before, from what people said." Grant shook his head. "It's not bad, but it is different, and not what I expected." He turned, heading for Fitz to make sure the scientist was ready - Coulson would be telling him about the mission right now. Victoria followed him out into the hall.

"Grant," she said even quieter than before, her voice barely audible. "There's no extraction - if we send an exfil team to the weapon's location, we compromise the entire operation and everything collapses. When you deactivate the device, you need to _run_."

Grant stiffened. He'd been sent in without extraction prepared before, if the situation demanded it, but Fitz? There was no way he could be told, no way he could handle it...

And every chance he wouldn't be able to get away - not on his own, and if Grant had to cover him...

Well, that reduced his own odds for escape and survival.

"You can't tell Agent Fitz," Victoria added. "He'll-"

"Panic and ruin the op, yes, I get it." Grant inhaled sharply.

"If there was any other way-" Victoria started, sounding apologetic - she wasn't good at apologies, never had been. But he knew she meant it, he didn't need to hear it. Holding up a hand, Grant cut her off:.

"This is why I don't want to be promoted out of the field, you know," Grant said. "Making these decisions..." He shook his head. "If I was any other specialist, would you have told me?"

Victoria hesitated, then shook her head. "No. Probably not." She paused another moment. "Take care of yourself - I have a feeling S.H.I.E.L.D. will need you for something bigger, sooner rather than later." From Victoria, that all but meant 'for the love of God please don't die on me, Grant.'

"Hey," Grant said, stepping back and smiling, spreading his hands a bit. "If I can survive Rio de Janeiro and Warsaw, I can survive this." He turned and headed down the hallway.

 _Damnit Victoria._ He understood her logic, understood this couldn't have been an easy choice for her...

He was the best agent for the job, and Fitz was necessary for disarming the Overkill Device itself...

But that didn't mean he had to _like_ that reality. Or that he had to be happy that Victoria was the one who came up with it. Doing the best with a bad situation or not, this was not something he'd ever thank her for.


End file.
